After a lovely overnight sail under starlit skies from Porto Sancho, we fired up early this morning to make our appointment with the pilots off the historic port of Funchal, Madeira. As soon as we were tied up and cleared in, we sent down the main t’gallant sail and yard so the carpenters could do […]
It’s a beautiful day to go sailing! After a short visit in the delightfully sleepy island of Porto Santo, which has a unique charm somewhere between the café culture of mainland Europe and the chilled out beauty of the Caribbean, we sailed off the anchor and got underway for the main island of Madeira. We’re
This afternoon the Captain gave an introductory talk about sailmaking to introduce some basic concepts before we start practical workshops on the next passage. It was a broad overview of how sails work, the different materials used in their construction, the techniques used to impart shape and strength to a sail, and how all of
Captain called an all-hands muster after lunch to discuss the progress of the passage. We have made good tracks from the Azores, but the weather charts are currently showing a huge high-pressure system over almost the whole North Atlantic, which is forecast to remain almost stationary for at least the next few days and giving
This week we assigned daymen from the watches because the weather is better and the gang are becoming more accomplished at sail handling, so fewer people are required in the watches just to sail the ship, allowing us to focus a little more on ship’s work. Rigging assistants for the week are Mackenzie and Gary,
This morning at 0740 while the oncoming watch were below eating breakfast and the 4-8 had just finished the morning deck wash, the port martingale backrope parted, the resulting pressure from the headsails on the jibboom causing it to break at the cap. All hands were called to take in sail, and bear away from
Since the weather has been fair we’ve been doing lots of painting, so it was a well timed paint and coatings workshop this afternoon. Captain explained how any unprotected steel will quickly rust in the damp, salty marine environment, and how we counteract this by diligent and regular painting. It has been thus ever since
Written by Purser Bob Azores – 18 November 2015 900 miles from Portugal and twice as far from Bermuda, the Azores are a classic stopping-off point for vessels making the transatlantic crossing between America or the Caribbean and Europe. A delightful mid-ocean service station, and they have been so for more than 500 years, since
We are still sailing close to the wind to make as much easting as possible, the crew are learning to sail ‘full and by the wind’. Since the weather was good and the winds light, the watches had some time to get on with personal projects on watch – practicing knots and marlinspike seamanship, reading,
We sent up the fore royal yard today. I wonder if anywhere in the world there is another ship crossing yards at sea today. A pleasant, fairly sunny day and with small swell so great for getting work done, but with the light winds of a large high pressure system we are going quite slowly
